Innovation, the key to financial sector growth – Arkuh

Mr Charles Arkuh, the Vice President of Groupe Ideal, has called on the financial sector to take strategic decisions in order to sustain the industry as the advent of the mobile money transactions is transforming the sector.

“But it will take critical thinking to take advantage of this creativity”, he said and urged the industry to come up with products to enable them take advantage of the development to boost their business.

Mr Arkuh, in an interview with the Ghana News Agency on developments in the financial sector, especially the emergence of mobile money transactions; advised financial institutions to partner or collaborate with players in the telecommunications sector to maximize the potential of the use of technology.

On the issue of non-performing loans in the financial service sector, Mr Arkuh said it is an area of great concern to all financial institutions; citing instances where prospective borrowers attempted to outwit the processing procedure through the presentation of fake documents.

He urged banks and other financial industry players to strengthen risk management practices to minimize default risks saying “there should always be the issue of trust in both ways for the clients and the institution.

“Customers must check the basic regulators requirement before investing with financial institutions to avoid the recurrence of the DKM scandal. And financial institutions need to undertake thorough checks before giving out loans”.

He urged the public to spend wisely and remember always to save and invest with one of Ideal Financial Holdings subsidiaries like Ideal Finance Limited, FirsTrust Savings and Loans, and Ideal Capital Partners Limited, an investment and assets management firm.

Source: GNA